"Copy That"

So anyone that's manage to read the first of my posts will know that my Etsy fairy godmother is Hidden Eloise. (I commissioned her for a piece- she made me open a shop) Eloise is not only HUGELY talented but also one of the lovelee-ist kind hearted people I've met. So, I wasn't happy when I saw another artist pretty much copy her work and was even more Hulk like when I saw that Paperchase were selling products with a remarkably similar illustration to that of her He Says He Can Hear The Forest Whisper so much so that I thought she'd got a big contract..... turns out now.

By now pretty much everyone seems to know the story, it spread through Twitter and made the news. We all  know that copying goes on and if a bit is changed that somehow makes it a "new" piece but it doesn't stop that fact that it's theft - not just of a piece of art but that persons time and money. This is about the tiny people getting ripped off (not the Oompa Loompas although let's be honest they were). When I was at college I found out that one of my degree pieces was openly copied by a well known jeweller, I also know of a very big name jeweller who seem to have no problem in ripping off graduates or lesser known. I'm really glad that my notice has sparked off this because it's not just other sellers on Etsy that are bothered by it, far from it and the more big businesses and big designers realise that things go unnoticed maybe, just maybe the less it will go on.